Ethnicity: A Social Pathology in Nigerian Federalism and Unity
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Abstract
Prior to colonialism the various groups that have formed the present day Nigeria hitherto existed as autonomous ethnic/tribal groups with distinct socio-cultural, political, religious, economic, historical and geographical backgrounds, and shared minimal or no contact at all. After the Brussels conference of 1890 which gave Britain the permission to take absolute npolitical control of the territories under its watch, there came a need to weld the entire territories into one, for administrative convenience. This work thus, examined the phenomenon of ethnicity as a social pathology in Nigerian federalism and unity. It relied on secondary data and adopted the Durkheim’s social regulation and functional theoretical perspectives to explain the phenomenon under review. It is argued that Nigeria has not been able to develop sustainable “peoplehood” as a nation since the historic amalgamation. Restructuring that entails a return to true federalism is recommended, instead of ethnic federalism as the “elixir” to the Nigerian ethnic problem and concludes that ethnicity is really a cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress which must be decisively dealt with by legislation and its enforcement if Nigeria must continue to be a unity in diversity.
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